Lunenburg's police chief calls for shooter drills

In the wake of the mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., in December, public safety officials are looking for ways to prevent a similar event from happening in their community.

In Lunenburg, Police Chief Jim Marino is proposing that officers participate in active shooter drills inside the town's schools. The training could help officers defuse a situation involving a gunman.

Marino said the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School only confirmed his belief that it was time to bring back the drills to bring his officers' skills up to speed.

Instituting the program comes with a price tag, however. Officers must be paid overtime to attend the training sessions.

"Unfortunately, it's not something we have in the budget right now, but come the start of the new fiscal year, it's absolutely something I want to bring back into the picture," he said.

Marino said raised the possibility of bringing back active shooter training with Superintendent of Schools Loxi Jo Calmes before the shooting in Newtown. That tragedy simply reaffirmed the need, he said.

"It's one of the best trainings I've ever been to," Marino said. "It only helps us respond to incidents better."

He added, "This is important not only from the public-safety aspect but for the people here, too. If someone is hell-bent on killing someone in a school, we have to know how to prevent it.

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Calmes said it is important that students and teachers are properly trained, too.

"The best thing we can do in our district is to train teachers how to react if and when a situation arose," she said. "Our kids pay attention to them during a crisis."

Ashby Reserve Officer Glenn Casey said he has worked in the department for two years and has yet to attend a live shooter training, due in large part to the cost. He said it's something that small towns like Ashby need more than ever.

"This can happen anywhere, especially in a small town like this," Casey said. "If we're not trained appropriately, then we're going to be the victim like everyone else. If we're ever called to a situation with a live shooter or something at the school or for mutual aid, say at the mall in Leominster, people expect us to respond appropriately, but we're not really trained properly."

In live shooter-training sessions, paintball bullets are used.

"I think this is important for us to do," Casey said. "I think the public deserves to be protected in that aspect, so we should be trained in it."

Fitchburg Police Chief Robert DeMoura said his department has an in-house training center where the city's officers can practice many of the skills learned in a scenario involving an active shooter.

"We've been doing these active-shooter drills for years now," DeMoura said. "They're a great resource for us to be involved in because it provides our officers necessary training for crisis situations."

Most recently, he said, the officers have also done mental-illness training.

"This is something that is absolutely on the top of our training schedule each year," DeMoura said. "We're always involved with the schools and how we can work together to help each other. For us, it's just something we've always focused on. I think the awareness on our part is always there."

Unfortunately, he said, mass shootings are an all-too-common occurrence. First-responders need to be trained properly.

"If it wasn't Newtown, it was Aurora. If it wasn't that, it was Columbine," he said. "Things like this happen all over the country."

Townsend Police Chief Erving Marshall said training like this has always been important, even before Newtown. Now police departments are making it a priority.

"It's obviously become a hot-button topic," he said. "It should have been a part of regular training anyway prior to Newtown. It should be a part of ongoing training curriculum."

Townsend held training in June, he said.

"It's up to the school to have protocol in place," he said. "We do have a response plan in place if something were to happen."

The cost to his department, he said, is about $4,000 in overtime expenses. Marshall described that as a small price to pay for such important training.

"It's important to keep everyone informed on the practices of active shooters and just, in general, firearm safety training," he said. "It gives us preparation for any type of situation moving forward."

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